


Dusted With Snow, Painted With Blood

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF!Stiles, Derek Stiles and Lydia are Guardians, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Magic!Stiles, Pack Dynamics, Pack Feels, Pack Mom Stiles, Puppy pile, Secret Santa, Slight Violence, Spark!Stiles, cop!Stiles, creature of the week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 17:51:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2782118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas is around the corner and with it your average woes for Beacon Hills, namely, yetis, witches, and the bad guys who think that tying people down to listen to their monologues makes up for not having enough hugs as a child</p><p>Or</p><p>The one where Derek and Stiles are Guardians, Derek continues to be mystified by technology, Stiles almost gets hypothermia and they have to stay at an abandoned yeti house in the mean time, and oracle cards are definitely not a game</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Urban Legend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ejunkiet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ejunkiet/gifts).



> Oh my Goddess I should have just called this thing "The Beast" I swear, to say I didn't intend for it to be this massive is putting it mildly... merry Christmas to ejunkiet! I'm your Secret Santa and I really hope you like your fic! I know I didn't add wolf!Derek and BELIEVE me I really wanted to, I just couldn't find a good place to put that in *headdesk* Sorry about that ^^;
> 
> A note on the fic, given that I dabble in meta I've become overly attached to the idea of Stiles, Derek, and Lydia being the new Guardians and sort of unofficially slapped the label on them, and since no one knows for sure yet what exactly Stiles is in canon I decided to just keep calling him a Spark for now, it sounds cute anyway

"You HAVE to be joking," Stiles looked up slowly, eyebrow quirked as he stared at the man above him, the deep exhale and look of frustration plastered to the werewolf's face would argue that no, he was not, in fact, kidding, "I get it ok? You aren't joking, but stop looming like a bear already and sit down," slowly, Derek pulled up a chair and sat across from Stiles, "Do you think this is our buisness?" Derek asked quietly, Stiles swallowed, nodding slowly and licking his lips, "Yeah I think so, look, my lunch break is in five minutes, we'll talk about it in depth then, but... someone bringing urban legends to life? I don't know about that, it doesn't sound like an average psychopath to me," Derek nodded again and glanced at the sheriff's office, "Are you su-" "Dad doesn't need to know, and neither does Scott or Kira or anybody else busy with college and the future and stuff, I didn't stay behind because I was in LOVE with the idea of a tiny government paycheck and struggling not to fall asleep wile I glare at my spedomoter tracking soccer moms ok? I stayed here because somebody else had to take this torch," "And that someone is you," Derek added dryly, "Well DUH, I AM your emissary," "And Scott is the Alpha but he's in vet school the next town over," "And I drive there every weekend- I visit him more than his girlfreind- but.... everybody has been trying to move on with their lives, best we don't ... interrupt that, if anybody else wanted to stay in Beacon Hills besides who's still here, they would have, not like our college sucks THAT badly," Derek nodded, standing slowly, "I'll go wait for you at the usual spot then?" Stiles smiled and nodded, turning back to his computer but watching Derek, given that he still hadn't moved, "Want me to call Lydia?" Stiles thought on that for a moment, "How many deaths so far?" "Four," he nodded slowly, leaning back, "Yeah.... get Lydia's fancy little butt over here too," "She's usually busy at this time of day remember?" Stiles rolled his eyes, "Well then ask her when she's free so we can go over there," Derek nodded and turned to leave, putting the file back in his jacket and pausing when Stiles said a soft "Wait," he turned, raising his eyebrows as the cop took a deep breath, "I .. I miss 'em too, I mean... we see everybody during the holidays and Scott and Kira come by every weekend... but it just ... isn't the same is it?" Derek shook his head slowly and Stiles stood up, "Ya' know something Big Bad Wolf? I'm taking lunch early and the department can suck it, Parrish'll cover for me," "That poor deputy always having to cover your crap," Derek teased as they started walking again, Stiles snorted, "Oh PUH-LEASE, when he JOINED our pack I told him up front that his job would be 'the official Stiles crap cover-upper' and he did it anyway," "Because he and Lydia are head over heels for eachother probbably, wich, when you think about it, is how most of our pack keeps expanding," Derek pointed out, "Noooooo it expands because people hear of our awesomeness and decide 'Yeah there's a pack I want to be in, the McCall-Stillinski-Hale pack, they're awesome', that's how we keep getting newbies," "I'm going to tell the 'newbies' you said that when we get home and we'll just see how they take that," Derek snorted, "Oh dude no, don't do that, DO NOT do that, you remember what Caitlin did the first time I said that out loud," "And I hear she's been giving Leah private lessons," ".... Don't make me arrest you for threatening a police officer dude,"

"Alright Big Guy, what'cha got for me?" Stiles hummed as he slid into the booth across from Derek, the werewolf glanced up from his coffee and grabbed the iPad next to him (it had been gift, it's a long story) "I have the information saved on here," Stiles nodded, waiting on him to hand it over.... except that he didn't, instead a few minutes into it Derek had a rather frustrated look on his face and started huffing and puffing and tapping the sensitive electronic a little too hard and then he GROWLED at it.... "Ok, no, Dude, don't kill the iPad, what did you do?" Derek frowned more as Stiles took the device away from him, "Why do you ASSUME I did something to it?" "Beeeecaaaauuuuseeee the last time you had a problem with an electronic it was because you accidentally scratched your phone's screen and it froze..." he muttered, glancing at the thing, "I just... wanted to get the icon off of it..." "What icon?" "I was doing some research on a website and it kept having these pop up windows telling me to vote and I couldn't get them off so I clicked 'I already did' and then it gave me this stupid.. icon.. background... THING and I couldn't get it off..." "Well Derek it seems you've somehow managed to completely delete any trace of a browser that you ever had, thank you," he huffed, Derek rolled his eyes, slipping slowly down into his seat, "Can you fix it?" "Yeah, just gonna take a minute here, anyway go on and tell me what you remember," "Well off the top of my head... there have been four victims so far, a man, a woman, and a couple just a few nights ago, the man was found in a bath tub with his kidneys removed, the woman was reported by her roommate who claims she heard muffled groans and screams but assumed her roommate had a .... visitor..... and didn't bother turning the light on, the message 'Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?' was found written on the wall, and the couple reported hearing that a convicted murderer with a hook for a hand had escaped earlier that night, they happened to be in a car up on Make Out Hill and the girl called her freind to ask about it, the freind said she thought it was a hoax since she had had the TV on the news all night and hadn't heard anything, this morning they were found in the car with their throats slashed and a hook in the rear-veiw mirror," "Dude... I know ALL of those urban legends, hell they were from the MOVIE 'Urban Legend'!" "Really?" Derek asked in surprise, "Yeah definately, ok so somebody is bringing urban legends to life, why is this our buisness?" he asked, still messing around with the iPad, "Because I don't think it's a human doing this, I know it isn't Beacon Hills.... but it's close to here, it's the next town over and this last one was-" "Just a few miles between Beacon County and Carstairs County I know, and the first town they'd hit from that direction-" "Is Beacon Hills," Derek concluded, Stiles nodding, handing his iPad back, "What makes you think this isn't a human?" "Because it was... weird, everything seemed human enough at first until the last one, there are absolutely no radio stations in the area that made any announcement about a serial killer, even as a prank or a hoax, it just seems too strange, and even if it IS just a human, we can't let that sort of thing into Beacon Hills, it's a risk we can't take," Stiles nodded, stretching and yawning, "Ok, well my shift is over in about three hours, we'll meet at your place and go over the game plan, 'kay?" "Alright... oh and Stiles?" He asked as Stiles stood up from the booth, "Hm?" "Ah... who's your favorite Disney charector?" Stiles blinked for a moment, grinning, "Woooooooow, way to ask the hard questions, um... I guess Tigger, I mean I love Lilo and Merida and Elsa and all the other charectors too but ... I guess I just always felt connected to Tigger, weird as that sounds," he mused, nodding slowly, "Alright," he mused quietly, "Ok.... welp, see ya' later~" Stiles waved, heading out of the cafe and humming as he went out to the car, Derek sighed, grabbing his iPad and clicking out of the internet browser that Stiles had somehow fixed.... and seeing a picture of Queen Elsa as his new background, "... One of these days I'm going to have his pelt as an ornament,"

~+~

"Give. It. BACK!" "Ohhhh Sammy has a girlfreind~ Sammy has a girlfreind~" "I swear to GOD Liz-!" Derek took a deep... DEEP breath before exhaling slowly and opening the door, seeing the stand-off in front of him and walking calmly over, behind the girl facing away from him, and plucked the cell phone out of her hand, making her turn quickly on her heel and stare up at him in alarm, "D-Derek! You... surprised me...." she said with an awkward grin, "Why don't we let your sister have her phone back?" he said calmly, handing the phone to the girl on the other side of the table, "THANK YOU," she huffed, shoving her phone back into her pocket, "Now would you mind telling me WHY you girls are here?" he sighed, "Our aunt Trisha is over for the day and she always peeves us off," "Plus it's a full moon tonight so we didn't want to risk losing control with her over," the sisters explained, "We thought it'd be more easy to explain if we had to go away for the weekend," "Right..." Derek muttered, having forgotten that today was Friday, "I'm having a meeting here in about an hour, so you girls are welcome later but for now-" "Where do we go?" the older teenager asked with a frown, "Try Mrs. McCall's house, I'll let you know when my meeting is over," "Thanks Derek," they said with small smiles, the werewolf nodded slowly, watching them leave and crashing on the couch as he silently wondered just how good of an idea it was to take in every stray supernatural creature they found....

"So how come you told Sam and Liz that you had an important meeting tonight?" Stiles asked as he wandered through the door, "Because I don't want the pack getting involved in anything that doesn't directly concern them, we've made that mistake before and I've learned my lesson," "Good point," Stiles agreed as he flopped down on the couch, "Is Lydia bringing Parrish?" Derek asked as he walked to the kitchen, "I don't think so, he has a pretty long shift today," "Right," the werewolf muttered, grabbing a can of Coke and bringing it to Stiles wordlessly, "Ah thanks Man!" the other grinned, opening the can eagerly, "Mm-hm," he hummed back, "Ya' know, I have to say, I still sorta think this is a human crime, I mean it just doesn't have any of the supernatural markers ya' know?" "You think?" "Yeah... I mean look don't get me wrong, something is definately fishy here, I just don't know if it's the supernatural kind of fishy or the 'this crime isn't as it seems' kind of fishy, I'll have to tack up the info on my crime board when I get home, you got the pappers and stuff?" "Yep," he nodded, "Cool," "So why do you feel like it's a human crime?" he shrugged, "I dunno... it feels... too clean, too plotted, it's hard to explain," "No I think I understand, I just don't get why anyone would make crimes like urban legends, especially when the victums are sometimes left alive, it's just weird," he nitted his brows and wrinkled his nose, "Derek, do you have any connection between these people? Any AT ALL? Like ... maybe they went to the same school or something?" he shook his head, "No, all different parts of town, all different races, sexualities, ages, personalities... none of them were even close to knowing eachother," "Isn't that strange in it's self?" the two heard, turning their heads as Lydia walked into the loft, "I mean, Beacon Hills is a small town, isn't it weird that the killer managed to target four people who were all SO different from eachother that they couldn't have even met eachother at a park or a grocery store? I mean.. I get that because of their areas they couldn't reasonably have a small connection like that... but you combine that with having no larger connection and with having nothing simaler about them at all... it's like someone went WAY out of their way to make sure no one could make a connection," she pointed out, Stiles jerked his head up, leaping to his feet, "That's it.... that's JUST it! It's a crime within a crime!" "Wait... what are you talking about?" Derek asked in confusion, "A crime within a crime... it's... a semi-common motive for serial killers, they want to kill ONE person- or one group of people- and hide it within a bunch of other murders so that no one can single out the one they were aiming for- and THUS no one would suspect them just because they had a bad connection with the victum, for a wile they thought that was Jack The Ripper's motive-" "But they recently found out who he was and disproved that theory," Lydia concluded, "But who would be the one they were originally wanting to kill then?" Derek frowned, "Either the only one who's currently dead... or that one hasn't happened yet and this has all been an elaborate set up," Lydia replied, "No, it was DEFINATELY a set up, that girl that's dead? She's not the original victum," Stiles said with certainty, "How can you be so sure?" "Because that urban legend- 'Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?' isn't about the dead girl, it's about her roommate, the roommate who didn't turn the lights on, who the message was left for, who has to live with that massive guilt.... that's who that urban legend is about, by doing it in urban legend format like this it's almost like a direction, look here not there, the 'stars' of these crimes are who we're looking at, whoever the intended victum is, they're gonna be the star," "Pretty smart of you," Lydia smirked, "Thanks... we should look for tiny connections though, the thing about random killings to cover up another crime is that they're actually the furthest thing from random, these people were chosen SPECIFICALLY, and we need to find out why,"

~+~

"Ok there should be enough time to plow through one more pizza before the full moon so get now wile the gettin's good," Stiles hummed as he walked over to the couch in Derek's loft and flopped down as some of the younger pack members made a b-line to the pizza, "You know, it's kind of weird that you guys have all... organized this stuff," Liam mused as he leaned over and reached for Stiles' pepporoni pizza, to wich the other male batted his hand away harshly, "You see death enough times you learn basic organization," Derek muttered, "Ofcourse the fact that the pack started expanding beyond reasonable council helped too," Lydia shrugged from the floor, leaning back against the coffee table, "Still, I remember the olden days of the beaten down train cars and nails through the head," Erica mused, Derek hung his head, "Ok new rule about being brought back from the dead, no attacking the people that brought you back," Stiles ordered, "I'm not attacking anyone, I'm just saying," she shrugged, Stiles sighed, about to fire a rebuttle back at her but paused suddenly when a dog-like yelp echoed through the loft and Stiles sprang up, "Alright, who stepped on who!? I am THIS close to banishing somebody from the puppy pile!" he shouted as he marched to the kitchen, "God I hate the puppy pile," Liam groaned, "Maybe eventually we'll get enough people in the pack to out-vote him on that," Lydia mused, Derek just snorted, "PLEASE, most of the people in this pack are adolescent werewolves, there aren't enough Banshees in the WORLD,"

~+~

"I can't BELIEVE it's snowing and Allison is missing it," Lydia sighed longingly as she stared out the window of the loft, "I know, she complains every year about it not snowing in California and now she isn't even here to see it, wat a tragedy," Erica agreed, "She might still get back before it stops, it looks like it's falling pretty heavily," Derek mused from the kitchen as he sipped his coffee, "I doubt it, she's in France, it isn't like she's going to catch a plane and be back here in an hour... and knowing how rare it is to have snow in California, especially Beacon Hills.... it'll be gone by this afternoon anyway," Stiles sighed sadly, leaning back on the couch and waiting for the news to start, "Good, I hate snow, it makes walking around unnessicairily difficult," Malia said with a roll of her eyes, putting her feet on the coffee table as Derek silently judged her from the kitchen, he hated it when people put their feet on his coffee table but Malia and Erica both seemed to have some sort of personal vendetta against his poor table, "Well we weren't ALL coyotes once and SOME of us LIKE snow," Liam snorted, Malia just rolled her eyes, "Well I hate to break it to you but w-" "Shhh!!" Stiles hissed suddenly, jerking the volume on the TV up higher as the news began, _"-Another body found in the woods last night, it's so far unclear exactly what happened to 23-year-old Shaylynn Woodburrow, but judging by what we know so far it APPEARS to be an animal attack, though quite different from the ones that have been plaguing Beacon Hills the last several years, police have said that if this IS an animal attack, whatever it was is bigger and stronger than the animal responsable- believed to be a Mountain Lion- for the attacks that have been plauging Beacon County for the last several years, we'll keep you updated as we find out more, this has been Kim Chang with Channel-"_ Stiles turned it back down, looking over the back of the couch at Derek, who was staring right back at him, "Bigger than a werewolf, and apparently lethal, that can't be a good combination," Stiles sighed, "Agreed, we better investigate," Derek nodded, Stiles sighed and got up, "Ok- everybody is loft bound until we say otherwise, Lydia, you good puppy-sitting?" "Hmm... stay in a nice warm loft with food and cable and have to put up with a bunch of bratty teenage supernaturals .... or go out in the freezing cold looking for something big and homicidal with Grump and Grumpier?" she paused, "Atleast this place has locking doors," "Right," Derek sighed, starting to get his shoes on, "Ok everybody is loft-bound until we say otherwise, call whoever you need to call and say you're snowed in or something, just make an excuse that'll keep you here without suspecion for an undetermined amount of time," "Wow, remember when you didn't try to Mom us all the time?" Erica snorted, "Wow, remember when you died because we all sucked? Yeah let's not repeat that, there's a reason the spell could only bring three people back from the dead, let's not tempt it," she sighed, but didn't argue, "If anybody else has a problem with this we can call Scott," he said sternly, ofcourse, as expected, no one protested, though Stiles wasn't sure if it was because they respected the fact that he knew what was good for them or because they didn't want to be lectured by the Alpha... but it didn't matter, atleast they were quiet

~+~

"I mean really, JUST because you're able to call a charector out on their BS doesn't mean you can't like them- I do! I do like him! He's one of my favorites! But that doesn't make him exempt from doing something wrong, I mean no one is perfect, that just gives charectors DEPTH in my opinion, and more importantly why CAN'T he be bisexual? Do you even know what age most people are when they have their sexual awakening? It isn't 23 I'll TELL you that!" "Stiles," Derek sighed, there was a pause, "I was ... rambling again wasn't I?" the werewolf gave a slow nod and walked slowly down the slope, pulling Stiles carefully with him, "We're lucky Parrish gave us these badges so we can investigate," Derek mused, adjusting the lanyard around his neck as they walked towards the taped off crime scene, "No kidding, last time was a DISASTER," Stiles agreed, making the older man cringe, "Don't.... ever mention last time again," he muttered, slipping beneath the caution tape with Stiles following, "Right, sorry," Derek just nodded, inhaling deeply, "Well it's definately a shapeshifter," "Really? Can you get anything more distinct?" he shook his head slowly, "Give me a minute... I don't reckognize the scent so I don't think we've ever met the person it belongs too... but I can smell the half human part so whatever it is is like us," "Wolf?" "Definately not, it's much harder to distinguish," Stiles nodded, waiting a little longer, "Anything at all? Kainine? Feline? Reptilian? Aquatic?" "No no no.... and absolutely NO, for the LAST time aquatic shapeshifters are a rarity on land!" "Tell that to the wereshark of last summer," Derek rolled his eyes, "We returned her to the water and we have yet to see her since," "Yeah that we KNOW of! We never saw her human form remember?" that was an unusually good point... "I mean dude our own PACK MEMBER is a MERMAID," "...We're getting off topic, it isn't aquatic, it isn't reptilian, I can definately rule those out," "And kainine or feline?" "Neither, whatever this is we've never come across it before, I don't reckognize the scent at all," "Well can you get a ballpark? Like if it was... say.... a wererabbit, would you be able to get a ball park of what it smells like from sniffing a normal rabbit?" "Basically, but that's just it, I've never smelled anything like this before," Stiles hummed thoughtfully, rocking on his heels, "Maybe we should call Malia, I mean she lived in the wilderness for years so she probbably has a bigger range of smells than you do, maybe she'd reckognize it," Derek nodded slowly and thoughtfully, "Good point... alright, call Malia," Stiles nodded and grabbed his phone, hissing, "Ah one bar..." he muttered, starting to walk backwards through the woods, "One bar.... one bar.... one bar.... two bars..... two bars.... one bar..." he muttered to himself, "Stiles! Wai-" "Three bars!!" he shouted, gasping suddenly and looking down when he heard a cracking sound, he looked down, paling when he saw the iced over lake beneath him, he cursed, taking a step to move off of the water and looking down again when the ice suddenly collapsed and he fell in, "Stiles!" Derek shouted, running towards him to help him out of the water, the other was fighting, grabbing at the ground and trying to pull himself up, only for Derek to take his hands and drag him upwards, "Thankfully that lake isn't deep," he sighed, Stiles shivered, clinging to the other man as his body wracked with chills, "F-F-F-F-Freezing!!!" "Yeah, we need to get you out of those wet clothes and into something warm as soon as possible, come on, let's get back to the car, we'll come back and finish this later,"

"D-D-D-D-Derek..... c-c--c-c-cold...." Stiles panted, wrapping himself up further in his jacket, "I know Stiles! I'm trying to get this car started! Of all times for your stupid jeep to crap out on us!" Derek shouted in anger, "HEY!" Stiles snarled, trying to keep his shivering down, "Y-Y-You can...i-ii-insult m-m-me.... y-y-y-you can.... i-i-insu-u-ult m-m-m-my f-freinds.... y-y-y-you c-c-can e-e-ev-en.... i-i-i-insult m-m-my.... b-b-b-beleifs.... b-b-but.... DON'T... t-talk a-a-a-about my b-b-b-aby that way!" Derek just sighed, shaking his head slowly, "I don't know what's wrong with this car... look it'll be faster if we just run alright?" Derek proposed, Stiles nodded slowly, "Th-Th-Th-There's a sh-sh-sh-sh-short cut .... th-th-th-th-through th-th-the w-w-w-woods..." "Right," Derek said, scooping Stiles up in his arms and holding him close to his chest as he raced through the woods, the younger man shaking almost violently in Derek's arms, "Just hold on ok!?" he shouted as he ran, "D-D-er-...ek...." Stiles panted, shivering harder, Derek cursed, Stiles just wasn't going to make it all the way back to the house... "We need to get you out of those clothes as soon as possible, we don't have time to get you home," he mentioned, "Y-Y-Y-You could..... a-a-a--atleast.... b-b-b-b-b-bu-uy me..... d-d-d-dinn-nn-er f-f-f-first," Derek sighed, rolling his eyes and looking up wen a familiar scent hit him, right up ahead was a wonderfully warm and comfortable looking cabin, and it was only a few yards away... problem was... it smelled just like watever had attacked that woman.... "C'mon Stiles, let's get you in some dry clothes," he said quietly as he ran towards the cabin

"Ahhhhh I'm finally warm! I gotta tell ya' for a homicidal maniac that guy has some nice soap, smells like lavender," Stiles mused as he strode out of the bathroom, a trail of steam following him as he walked to the couch, "What? How do you figure the person living here is a homicidal maniac?" Derek asked in confusion, "Oh please, it's obvious that whoever left that scent at the crime scene owns this place, you've been acting like we walked into a giant mouse trap since we got close to the door," "And that DOESN'T bother you...?" Stiles shrugged, flopping down on the couch next to Derek, "At this point I've had worse, I'll wait on my clothes to get finished drying, I mean we would have to find the murderer anyway right? We got a jump on it," "Yeah a completely unprepared jump, and you still need to relax for the day. the last thing you need is to overwork yourself when your body has already been under stress," Derek demanded as Stiles slapped his head down in Derek's lap and stretched, "Don't be such a drama queen," Stiles snorted back, Derek just rolled his eyes, "We need to go soon, as soon as your clothes are done drying, we both need food and we don't need the guy walking in to your scent on every-" he paused, tensing, "Derek? What's wrong?" Stiles asked with concern, "He's coming... hide!" Derek hissed, "What!? Jeez some warning!" "It's snowing outside remember? It muffles the sound of footfall, not to mention the heavy wind makes it almost impossible to catch a moving scent!" he hissed, dragging Stiles towards the bathroom but being forced to freeze when the door opened, "Ok Big Guy, c'mon, wolf it up, get Big Bad on this guy, c'mon," Stiles encouraged as he and Derek turned around, blinking in surprise when they saw a man just a bit taller than Derek in the doorway, he had shoulder-length dark brown hair in a ponytail and a full goatee dressed in a couple of heavy layered sweaters, some jeans and snow boots, he was... extremely attractive too... "Um..." Stiles began, "Ah, you must be weary travelers seeking refuge from the cold," the guy said with a smile, "I'll gladly make you some soup if you'd like some,"


	2. Not So Abominable Snowman (And Woman)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They just keep going deeper down the rabbit hole... now that they've determined the local Yetis are, in fact, NOT people they should immediately distrust, they're left to figure out how witches are involved in all of this, the murders are still unsolved and now with confirmation that the Yetis are as much in the dark as they are, they begin to wonder if the witch- or witches- orchestrating this could have a bigger plan in mind than just ritual sacrifice...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note on the fic, the cards Stiles is using for divination are the Shapeshifter Oracle cards by Lucy Cavendish and Jasmine Beckett Griffith, it's a really amazing deck! I thought it- and some of the cards especially- were too fitting to leave out even though it didn't actually do much for the plot, and the Kitsune card may not have fit as well as some of the others I could have used for Stiles' fifth but you know, I couldn't help myself
> 
> Also, just a little disclaimer, don't try sweetgrass in smudgings unless you have alot of experience and confidence in what you're doing, it could backfire pretty easily according to what I've read about it
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy!

To say that the silence was tense was to put it mildly, the poor guy cooking soup didn't seem to notice it as he hummed quietly to himself and moved subtlely to his own little groove, Stiles and Derek, however, were still exchanging concerned looks, "So how come you murdered that girl?" Stiles finally blurted out, Derek choked on his water, **_"STILES!"_** he screamed, Stiles just shrugged, "Well we had to bring it up sometime, atleast right now he has hot soup on the stove we can use as a weapon," "Oh my God," Derek mumbled as he covered his face with his hand, the second-hand embarrassment was real, "What?" the guy asked as he turned around, a look of complete devestation on his face, "I never.... why would you think I killed that girl? I never even knew her..." he said quietly, "He isn't lying," Derek frowned, "What? But I thought.... man I am so sorry Dude.... Derek is your nose on the fritz or something?" Derek shook his head immediately, "Wait... what's going on?" Stiles laughed nervously, blushing, "Um-" "Will! I got the crackers you wanted! Oyster right?" the boys all turned their heads towards the door were a young, brunett woman walked in, shutting the door behind her and pausing, "Um... we have company...?" "She has the same scent," Derek mumbled, Stiles stood up, walking over to her and grinning, "So have you killed anyone lately?" "What!? No!" she screamed, Derek stared at Stiles, shaking his head slowly, she wasn't lying either... "William, what's going on!?" "I was just going to ask the same thing...." Derek sighed, running his hands through his hair, "Alight.... I guess I should explain..."

"So... you two are investigating the murder that happened last night? And you thought one of us did it because you reckognize the scent?" William asked softly, "And you two are werewolves?" his sister asked with a bit more skepticism, "Well no, see, Derek is a werewolf, I'm a Spark," Stiles corrected, "What's a Spark?" the sister asked, "Umm... it's hard to explain, sorta like a witch only ... not... like I can control magic but it's different from how witches and druids do it, like a combination of both almost, it's like... you have the-" "Stiles," Derek groaned, "....Another time, you get the gist," he explained, "And you somehow know we're telling the truth when we say we didn't kill her?" "Werewolf powers," Stiles grinned, "What about you two? Your scent is unique enough that I've never found it anywhere else before, what are you?" Derek asked, getting right to the point, William and his sister glanced at eachother for a moment before she sighed and nodded, "Well... we aren't really sure if there's a propper term for it yet but.... we're .... Yetis," there was a pause, "... I'm sorry, could you say that again? 'Cause I thought I just heard you say you were Bigfoot," Stiles said, the two glanced at eachother again before William sighed and nodded, standing up, "Come outside... we'll show you,"

"Welp, that's a Bigfoot if I ever saw one," Stiles said, taking a step behind Derek, much to the werewolf's annoyance, "We...... don't..... hurt..... people....." the creature huffed, gigantic, atleast twice Derek's size, covered in hair from head to foot, with a human stance but ape like features, "Don't..... hurt....... no one....." "We get it, you're gentle giants," Stiles laughed awkwardly, the creature looked down at the girl, giving a grunt as she nodded, "He needs to shift back and get his clothes back on, come back inside," she insisted, leading them in, Stiles and Derek followed, a bit anxiously, but kept pace anyway, "We never got your name," "Oh it's Collette," she replied with a small smile, "Nice to meet you," she nodded once to Derek, walking back into the house, "You said our scents were on the victum?" "Well... the scent of a ... Yeti, yes, I didn't really try to get a better idea of if it were identical to your own, but I've never caught the scent of a Yeti before," he explained, "Yes... we're pretty uncommon," she agreed, "We should be going now though, let us know if you catch anyone or anything," Stiles said quickly, grabbing Derek's hand, "Alright.. sure," Collette nodded slowly, Stiles just waved, dragging Derek behind him as they exited the house, "What was that all about?" Derek frowned in confusion, "It's all about the sun setting, we've got like five minutes of light left dude, I'll work on the jeep, you try to get some more clues off the body," Derek frowned, he had a feeling Stiles wasn't telling him every reason he wanted to leave so quickly, but he decided not to press the matter, surely Stiles would explain later... he hoped

"What am I looking for again?" Derek sighed as they walked closer to the body, "Something, anything, just..... find SOMETHING..." Stiles sighed, Derek's eyes narrowed, "Wait a minute, why are you so upset? What happened back there that caused the impromtu leave?" he asked, narrowing his eyes, Stiles looked down, thinking for a moment, "Stiles?" "I thought I felt something out here... something I felt when Will shapeshifted," "What do you mean 'felt'?" Derek asked worriedly, "Like.. you know like a feeling?" "What kind of feeling?" "If I knew that I wouldn't be out here screwing around," he huffed, raking his fingers through his hair, "I... I'm sorry, really, just... look.... I'm just stressed out, I don't know how to explain it, I don't know what I'm DOING... I just feel like... like this is on me," Derek paused, putting a hand on Stiles' shoulder and frowning, "Stiles... it's ok, really, we'll figure this out another way, just.... let it go," Stiles laughed slightly, nodding slowly, "Thanks Der but um... I'm not Elsa," "Really?" he asked with sarcastic shock, "Alright alright put a sock in it..."

~+~

"Looks like this snow is going to persist for a wile, and with whatever's out there making it's mark I don't want to take any unnessicairy chances, anyone who isn't staying over I want to hear from every few hours, just to check in and make sure you're ok," Derek demanded as some of the pack started to gather their things to leave, "Is anyone staying the night besides me?" Stiles asked as he looked up from the newspapper he was flipping through, "I am," Lydia said, raising her hand, "I have to do some research and my mom is having company over, I won't be able to study with a party going on," she stated, Stiles nodded, "Anybody else?" he asked, glancing over at the usual suspects, Erica, Boyd, Malia... "Mind if I stay?" he blinked, looking over his shoulder and smiling ecstatically, "Allison!!!" he cried as the brunett walked into the loft, smiling adorably, "Allison you're back! How long are you staying?" Lydia cried, leaping over the couch and nearly running over Stiles to hug her best freind, "I'm staying for a wile, I've about had my fill of traveling," she chuckled, "What about Issac?" Derek asked curiously, "I don't know, my dad is heading to Mumbai in two weeks, Issac might go with him," she replied, holding an arm out for Stiles, "Alright! Ally A is here to stay!" he grinned, grabbing her and hugging back, "Please stop saying that," Lydia teased, "Nice to see you again by the way," Derek nodded softly, Allison just gave a considerate nod back, their relationship had come miles in the last year that she's been back from the dead, but it was still quiet, "Where are Scott and Kira?" she asked as her freinds finally let go, "Still on their way back from the hell hole known as college, I bet the snow is holding them up... PLEASE tell me you're not going away to school next year too, I am already losing three more next fall," Stiles groaned, "Don't worry, I want to do something local, maybe law enforcement," "Do it, do it Allison, do the thing," Stiles grinned, "Stiles, let the woman rest," Lydia huffed with a smirk, Allison just chuckled, sitting down on the couch, "I can't believe I nearly missed SNOW in California, of all the years I lived in this state," she chuckled, "You don't smell like pack anymore, you've been away too long," Malia pointed out as she stepped over to Allison's other side and plopped down, scooting close to her, "Malia .... remember how we talked about personal space?" Lydia chided, "She's alright, she's right, I don't smell like pack anymore," Allison chuckled slightly, "Hey that reminds me! You puppies need to come and greet Auntie Allison, most of you BARELY even know her!" Stiles demanded, Liam stood slowly, glaring over at Derek, "If he calls us 'puppies' ONE more time..." "Yeah yeah I promise I'll kill 'im," Derek shrugged, grabbing a grape soda out of the refridgerator for Allison, "Hey how about some cookies?" Stiles offered, pausing suddenly wen his phone started to vibrate, he grabbed it, answering it quickly as everyone else focused on their recently returned freind, Derek was the only one who was still paying Stiles any mind, "What's wrong?" he asked as soon as Stiles hung up the phone, he sighed, glancing up at Derek, "My dad found another body... around the same area as the last one,"

~+~

Derek rubbed his eyes slightly, walking around the corner to were he saw the light from the laptop, frowning a bit, he leaned over Stiles and glanced at the screen, all about yeti mythology it seemed.... he sighed, shutting the computer down and carefully picking up Stiles, dragging him to the couch and covering him with a blanket before heading back to his room, he knew Stiles was trying, but he was trying too hard and that much stress wasn't good for anyone, passing out from exhaustian wile researching wouldn't help, and if Stiles yelled at him later for turning his computer off without permission, well, Derek would just claim it was a fire hazard to leave it on, but he just couldn't let him keep working like that, atleast, not if he could prevent it...

~+~

"Scotty! Aghhh it's been too long!" Stile groaned as he tossed his arms around Scott and gave him a tight hug, "I know I know I'm sorry," Scott chuckled as he hugged his freind back, "What happened to being back last night?" Stiles wimpered as he took a step back, pouting sadly, "Sorry, I had to stay with my mom, she misses me ya' know?" he smiled gently, "Oh and I don't?" Stiles snorted back, looking behind him and smiling, "KIRA!! Did the same thing happen to you?" he pouted, "Yeah, sorry," she laughed slightly, blinking wen Malia pushed Stiles out of the way to bear-hug her, "Malia, hi to you too," she laughed, "Allison!" Scott perked as soon as the archer walked down the stairs, smiling brightly and rushing to him, "You're back!" they said simultaniously, pausing to grin at the coincidence, "Oh get a room," he snorted, rolling his eyes and glancing at Lydia, "I hope you and Parrish aren't going to make this a three-way... six-way...... whatever it is..." he huffed, she glanced up from painting her toenails and capped the bottle of polish, "Not a chance, BUT we do have a lunch date later since he had to take your shift yesterday and didn't meet me as per usual," she mused, Stiles just made a face at her, "Anyway I have some exciting news," Kira said with a smile, clearing her throat, "Oh?" Derek asked, perking up from the kitchen counter where he had been leaning for the past five minutes, "This is officially my last year in college," "Really!?" Stiles grinned with surprise, "Yeah, I was debating on if I should go another year or not and then a few days ago this special effects studio contacted me and ... well I'll have a job set up once this year is over," "That's great! Where is it?" Allison asked excitedly, "Just about an hour away from here so I can still live here in Beacon Hills," Kira smiled back, "That's awesome!" Stiles smiled, "You mean you'll be staying starting summer?" Malia asked to clairify, Kira smiled and nodded and Malia just got a very .... passionately aggressive look in her eyes, "What about you Scotty Boy? When do I get my main man back?" Stiles asked hopefully, "Maybe another year... maybe two..." Scott grinned awkwardly, Stiles let out a noise that- despite what anyone may say- could not have possibly been human, "SO snow in Beacon Hills huh?" Scott started fresh, "And to think we almost missed it," Allison joined in, "It's weird, it's been like this for days now, have you ever seen so much snow in California for so long in your life?" Stiles asked curiously, "No... it's definately weird," Lydia agreed, "But we're taking advantage of it, Allison and I are going ice skating and then to lunch and a movie," Scott said with a bright smile, "Wish I could enjoy it too but before my lunch date I have to be back at the lab filling out papperwork," "Are you ever going to tell us what EXACTLY you do?" Stiles asked with concern, "Now that wouldn't be any fun would it?" Lydia smirked back, Stiles cringed, "WELL I have to be at work, and Derek's gonna be training one of our new hires, right big guy?" Derek nodded slowly, glancing up from his cereal bowl, "Another one?" Scott asked with a small frown, "Yeah but no worries, you can do the meet and greet later," "You sure you don't need more help? The pack is getting pretty big," Scott mused, "Dude, it's FINE, we've got this, you didn't CHOOSE to be Alpha ok? We CHOSE to be Guardians," Stiles explained, Scott stared at them for a moment before nodding slowly, "SO looks like you two are going to have the loft to yourselves for a wile," Stiles hummed, winking at Malia and Kira, "Please stop encouraging them," Lydia sighed, "I swear everytime it looks like a tornado has been through here," "Good," Malia said blandly, "I'll see you at lunch ok Der? And YOU," Stiles paused, grabbing Scott again, "I will be FORCING a Star Wars marathon out of you this year or it'll KILL me!!" he groaned, starting out of the loft and waving, "See ya'!" Derek put his bowl in the sink, clearing his throat, "I have to go get my jacket, you two WAIT until I'm out of the apartment this time," he said, staring straight at Malia, who didn't seem at all phased as he went up the stairs, "So.... are they together yet or...?" Allison asked slowly, "Nope, want in on the pool?" Lydia asked seriously

~+~

"Derek! There you are! I ordered your usual for you, that ok?" Derek nodded slowly and sat down in the booth across from Stiles, "It's fine, thank you, how was work today?" he asked, glancing up as the waitress set their drinks in front of them, "It was meh, but Dad's letting me look into the mystery murders on the clock since it is TECHNICALLY a case belonging to the department, so Parrish and I are on that one," Derek nodded slowly, taking a sip of his coffee, "How's it going?" "Well I think I might ACTUALLY have a lead," Derek paused, cup at his lips as he slowly raised his eyebrows, "Say that again?" "Yeah, see, I was thinking.... I'm THINKING it has to do with this snow," "Snow?" "Yeah, hear me out, why is Beacon Hills the ONLY city in the county with snow right now? Why, in one of the hottest places of the USA, do we suddenly have snow deeper than my hatred for math, that's sticking on the ground and STILL falling, for DAYS now when the rest of the county hasn't even had a FLURRY? That's just not normal," "Ok... I agree but why do you seem so sure that has something to do with our mystery murderer and not just a ... random Elsa on parade?" "Because of the Yetis," Derek stared at him as if he had just grown a tail, "I looked into it last night," Stiles continued, "Will and Collette specifically kept saying they were Yetis, Yetis can't thrive in warm places, they're native to cold climates and lots of snow, mountains and places like the Himalayas, their warmer counterpart is most commonly known as a Sasquatch or Bigfoot and thrive in warm weather," "Alright... so besides the fact that our new freinds are apparently a long way from home what's your point?" he scooted forward, leaning over the table, "Don't you think it's a little weird that the first time we see Yetis is also the first time we have a snow storm like this? EVER? You smelled Yeti on the body- you smelled Will and Collette on the body, maybe they ARE responsable... they just don't know it," "What exactly are you saying?" "I'm saying.. witches, what if there's a witch who's controlling Will and Collette the way Matt was controlling Jackson and neither of them know it, what if the witch brought them here from somewhere else- I mean they live in the woods, it isn't like it's impossible to think they just moved here- and didn't know about the climate so she made snow? Lots, and lots of snow?" he suggested, "But why would a witch need such ... skewed and varried deaths?" "Maybe our first theory was right and she's trying to hide the actual sacrifices amongst urban legends, where no one would notice anything unusual like a pentagram or a bloody writing on the wall because 'hey it's some occult thing after urban legends' right? No one would no the difference between an ACTUAL ritual and just urban legend nonsense," "Clever," Derek nodded slowly, leaning back in his seat and thinking for a moment, "So, should we go on a witch hunt?" Stiles asked, Derek nodded slowly, taking another drink of his coffee, "Yeah, we're going on a witch hunt,"

~+~

"Oh, I wasn't expecting to see you two back, especially so soon," Will said in surprise, "Yeah well we were thinking over the last few days and we wondered something, do you guys remember moving here?" Stiles asked suddenly, Will blinked in surprise, taking a step back as Stiles and Derek entered the house, "Ah... come to think of it... no, no we don't," he replied, "You should call your sister here as well, we may have some .... disturbing news," Derek said gently, Will swallowed, nodding and running to the stairs, "Collette!! Come down here!!!"

"You think we were brought here by a witch?" Collette asked in surprise, "Well it's something we're considering.... do you guys have anything in the house or perhaps on you that you didn't have before you moved that just sorta appeared suddenly?" Stiles asked, the siblings glanced at eachother and slowly shook their heads, "Not that I can think of..." Will muttered back, "Wait... our rings," Collette replied suddenly, showing them her hand, "I can't remember getting these... but we wear them every day, we don't really think about it," she replied, gesturing to a beautifull silver and green wing on her fourth finger, "Can you try to pull it off?" Stiles asked, she nodded slowly, starting to tug on the ring and frowning, twisting and turning it as she tried desperately to remove it, "I... I can't.... I can't get it to come off...." she breathed, Will turned pale, starting to try to yank his off as well, "It's not coming off of me either!" he groaned, "Do you think it's magic?" Derek frowned, "Unless they're both suddenly bloated yeah," Stiles nodded, standing up, "Derek, go get my bag out of the car," "On it," Derek nodded, getting up immediately to go get his bag, "Do you guys have any salt I can use? Sea salt preferrably," "Use for what?" Will asked in confusion, "The rings, I want to test something," Collette nodded slowly and stood as well, "We have regular salt in the kitchen and I have a sea salt scrub in the bathroom," Stiles gave a quick nod, "To the scrub!" he announced, smiling to Derek as the werewolf headed out to the car before following Collette towards the bathroom, "That's quite incredable you know," he mentioned, Stiles blinked in confusion, tilting his head, "What is?" "Well I've just never seen a werewolf take orders from anyone before, the way you handle him is amazing," it took a few moments for it to click before Stiles finally started laughing, "Oh uh.. I'm pretty sure you got it wrong there," he replied as Collette reached into the cabinetand grabbed the scrub, "I'm not... ahh.. I wasn't ordering Derek around, and I don't HANDLE him, we're partners, equals, when he has werewolfy stuff to attend to I assist him and when I have sparky magicy stuff to attend to he assists me," she glanced at him, utterly surprised, "Oh... sorry-" "Oh it's ok, it's a common mistake... usually the other way around but still a common mistake," he shrugged, grabbing the jar of sea salt and scooping a small bit onto his fingers, "What exactly...?" he shook his head and rubbed a bit of it over the ring, sure enough wen he pulled on it again it was mildly looser, "Yep, just like I thought- magic,"

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Will asked worriedly, "Trust me, if the magic is weak enough to be disturbed by salt it'll slide right off after a smudging, like putting your hands in melted butter," he explained, dropping some cedar oil onto his smudge stick, "Stiles, do you have any masks around? That's starting to get strong," Derek coughed, sitting in a chair across from the siblings and holding a hand over his mouth and nose, "Oh! Yeah! Sorry!" he said with a grin, grabbing some medical masks and handing one to everyone, "What are these for?" Collette asked in confusion, "Ever been smudged?" "Er... no...." "It doesn't smell PLEASENT, especially to someone with a sensitive nose like a werewolf or a yeti, I mean, sage is a good herb, but it'll nearly choke you with the smell, especially when you burn it, see? Even I'M wearing one," he explained as he secured the mask on him, "What else do you have on the stick? I smell more than just sage," Will pointed out, "Ah very perceptive, I'm also using sweetgrass and cedar, I've found this is the best combination to wear down magic enough for me to use my own spark-ness to break it," he explained, the siblings nodded slowly, coughing slightly as Stiles started to burn the smudge stick, "What are you going to do with the rings once you get them off?" Will asked, "Take them with us, we're gonna track the witch, now listen.... when I remove the spell you guys might get your memories back, I want you to be prepared in case the witch DID use you for the murders," he said gently, the siblings nodded, clutching hands as Stiles began to rub the ashes of the herbs over their rings

~+~

"Shame they didn't remember anything right away," Derek commented as he drove, "Yeah but maybe they will later, probbably tommorrow," Stiles replied, leaning back in his seat and staring down at the rings, "Luckily, but we can't afford to wait on them," "That's why Lydia and I are going to try to track this witch," Stiles muttered back, "I just hope we can do it without risking the pack's involvement,"

"What the.... I thought we were going to get them to LEAVE?" Stiles huffed under his breath as he stared into the loft, Lydia sighed, glancing at the couch where Malia was invading Allison's personal space, "I WAS, I have tried everything I can think of and they won't leave, to make matters worse Scott is taking a shower upstairs," she sighed, "Ofcourse he is," Derek muttered, "Well YOU two try getting rid of them then," she muttered, Stiles nodded, clearing his throat, "Malia, what are you doing?" Malia jerked her head up and looked up from were she was running her fingers through Allison's hair, "She stopped smelling like pack," Stiles stared for a moment, taking a breath, "Maybe we should let Scott take care of that problem," "He's taking a shower- watering down the scent? What good is he right now?" "....Well I can't believe I'm saying this but you do have a point, anyway, can you go make Allison uncomfortable somewhere else? Like maybe in her own house?" "Why?" Malia frowned, Stiles cringed, trying to think of something- some WAY- he could lie to her... and quickly.... "Ah ... um... Mrs. McCall is ... she wants to see you and is at Alliso-" "Why are you lying to us Stiles?" Malia interrupted, he wrinkled his nose, trying to think of something else, "Alright the truth is... I'm having some gifts delivered here that I don't want you all to see," Derek said suddenly, Malia squinted at him, tilting her head, "Is one of them mine?" "I'm not telling you! But I don't need you running your mouth to everyone you see about secrets," "...That happened one time," "It happened four times," there was a small pause, "I can see your point," "Thank you,"

"How did you lie to the living lie detector?" Stiles asked curiously as he placed the ring he had over a map of beacon hills and handed the other ring to Lydia, "I wasn't lying, I really do have some gifts being delivered here," he mumbled shyly, "Ohhhhh, Derek going the cyber shopping way this year hm?" Lydia purred teasingly as she walked over towards the center of the room, "Have you ever known me to relish shopping in large crowds? Or shopping in general? ... Or large crowds in general?" he pointed out, "Guess that's true," she hummed back, "You gonna need any help wrapping those Der? I'm a master wrapper," Stiles grinned, batting his eyes teasingly, Derek just rolled his eyes and nudged Stiles in the shoulder, "Just get to work," he insisted, "Yeah yeah alright," Stiles huffed back as he pulled the amythist pendulum from the bag beside him and held it over the map and ring, "How much info do you think we need before we charge in claws blazing?" he muttered, "Alot, witches are nothing to mess with and we're trying to let the pack enjoy their holiday instead of involving them in a non-direct threat, we're in this alone so we better have all our ducks in a row," Derek replied, leaning against the staircase as he watched Stiles, the pendulum finally stilled after a few moments of trying to settle and then began slowly moving back and forth, Stiles watched the pendulum, seeming to see something that Derek obviously couldn't, "Looks like she lives on Winchester Street," Stiles finally said, starting to put everything away, "Alright, Lydia you need complete silence right?" Derek asked, glancing over his shoulder, Lydia gave him the "OK" symbol and he nudged Stiles to follow him upstairs as quietly as possible

"Alright Derek, come draw five cards," Stiles instructed as he drew five cards off the top of the deck, "Are you sure we shouldn't try the tarot cards instead? These are always so.... personal," Derek sighed as he drew another five from the top of the deck, "I don't like tarot cards much, so unless I REALLY need a ... darker idea of what we're dealing with I like sticking with the oracle, yeah it's more personal but it isn't as morbid, besides you like the shapeshifter cards," he mused, setting his five out in a pattern as Derek did the same, "I'm still not sure why you let me touch them, aren't cards supposed to be sensitive energy? Me touching them is like contaminating them isn't it?" he asked in confusion as Stiles set a couple of small crystals around the formation, "Usually? Yeah, but for one thing I clear the cards before and after every reading so I give them a clean slate, that gets rid of some of the energy residue, secondly you're my PARTNER Derek, pack.... but ... partner too, and most of our cases we work together, I want to know if there's something that'll happen on your end that won't nessiciarily happen on mine," he explained, Derek nodded slowly, watching as he started flipping over the cards in his own formation, the cards read, as follows- Kitsune, Fiona And The Unicorn, Little Owlyn, Wolf Moon, and Elizabeth And The Lion, he then immediately reached for Derek's hand, starting to turn them over as well, Raised By Wolves, Quetzalcoatl And The Preistess Of Time, A Twist In The Tale, The Butterfly Ferrets, and Little Red Riding Hood all surfaced as well, Stiles ran his fingers against the cards, seeming to read words that weren't there, before he glanced up at Derek, "How've you been feeling lately?" Stiles suddenly asked, Derek blinked, raising an eyebrow in confusion, "...Fine?" "Fine? You sure? ... Nothing bothering you? No... bad dreams? Guilty memories? No contact with ... anyone we shouldn't be talking to? Be honest with me, you can tell me," he said softly but sternly, "Why- ..." Derek paused, pursing his lips, "I don't like these cards, see? This is EXACTLY why I don't like touching these cards," "Derek-" "This is about the WITCH Stiles, not Psycho-Annalysis For The Magically Gifted, could you stay out of my head please?" he asked gruffly, "I'm not trying to be in your head, if the cards are bringing it up then it's relevant, just... tell me," he paused, watching as Derek looked down, "Derek... have you been thinking about Kate?" "No," he snarled out, "Peter?" "No!" "Laura?" there was a pause, "Derek... I can't.. tell you not to think about your family, especially with all the... corny... family crap going on with the holidays... I mean... I get it, you know I get it, but you can't keep feeling guilty over something that you know wasn't your fault," "Are you going to give yourself that same advice?" he asked suddenly, "'Kitsune' Stiles? I may not be able to read the cards but that seems to come up ALOT for you doesn't it?" Stiles nodded slowly, glancing at the card, "The Kitsune card actually stands for trust, entering into a period of time where you should use carefull judgement in where your trust is placed and seek guidance from a Kitsune when you're not sure, it's usually around this time when I start calling Kira," he said with a thin smile, "Oh," Derek mumbled, "But... don't think that I don't ever get my own problems in these cards, I do- alot, but all I'm saying is... I just.... want to help," Derek glanced at him, letting out a slow breath, "I had a nightmare last night, I've been thinking about all day, is the card ok with that now?" he grumbled, "I don't think the card is as offended by your tone as you're hoping it will be," Stiles teased, reaching across and taking Derek's hand, "Derek, look at me," the werewolf glanced up, eyes holding onto Stiles' gaze sternly, "Little Red Riding Hood- you know what that card means?" "No but I'm guessing that would be the traitor," Stiles chuckled, shaking his head, "It means 'I am not a victum', that's literally what it means, it means that you're strong, that what happened before to cause injustice in your life has passed and you survived it, it means that whatever has come in your path to cause you doubt about that, or to make those injustices reappear in your life, you need to remember your strength and not let them get the better of you, and I'm not trying to be some crappy after school special here... but since I started developing my powers I kinda started learning not to argue with divine messages," he grinned, Derek smiled slightly and nodded, "Alright... I'll do that, now will you please tell me what the rest of the cards say?" he asked with a small pout, "Yeah yeah," Stiles nodded, leaning back as he studied them, "Looks like the biggest part of the message is that this is going to be resolved with brains over brawns, lots of stuff about wisdom and Second Sight and leading, some stuff about still being new to my power so the greater good will protect me and .. the time to act is now and stuff like that, but there were a couple of other things that stood out," "Like what?" "Well... there are three that kind of bother me..." "And those are?" "See these two? Raised By Wolves and Wolf Moon?" Derek nodded slowly, "Well they're directly talking about relation to wolves- where as most of these cards aren't really super connected to the animal in them, wolf cards usually are, Raised By Wolves is all about being in a group- a pack, not being alone and relying on the wolves around you to help you transition to a new time or place in your life, and Wolf Moon is all about just... being familiar with wolves- or one wolf specifically, forming a tighter bond with them, it doesn't seem to fit with the current case and I'm already part of a pack, I'm not too sure what else it could want," "What's the third?" "A Twist In The Tale, it means that there's going to be a big change or surprise coming that we're not seeing, that we aren't expecting, whatever it is it's gonna be big," Derek took a breath and nodded, "I can see where that would be concerning... I'm not sure what to think about the wolf cards, do you have any thoughts about the other one?" Stiles nodded slowly, taking a breath, "What if the witch we're hunting isn't the murderer after all?"


	3. The Trouble With Witches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles would like to reflect back to his earlier thoughts on the subject, you never really know who or what you're dealing with until you're tied to a chair with a weapon in your face, he'd also like to reflect on the fact that villains never change and apparently NO amount of Kim Possible will change that, on the other hand, Derek would just like to get the hell out of here before they both ended up dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, woohoo! Thanks to anyone who made it to the end here, this is my first time uploading on AO3 although hopefully not my last, if it does well maybe I'll even move some of my fics from DA over here!
> 
> Enjoy!

"Seriously? You think the witch we're dealing with isn't really responsable... because of some cards?" Lydia asked skeptickally, "Lydia.." "Look, Stiles, no one understands that sort of thing more than I do, but I think you're jumping the gun a little," she explained, "I'm just asking you to think things through before you make a hard and fast conclusion, ok?" he nodded slowly, "Yeah... alright," "Good~ Now with that out of the way, I have a name for you," she smiled, "You do?" Derek asked in releif, "Yep, try Annabeth Nickles," "Annabeth Nickles... got it," Derek muttered, turning to the Spark, "Stiles, let's head on out and get this cleaned up," "On it," he nodded, "What do you guys need me to do?" Lydia asked, "Just stay here and watch the pack," Derek replied, she sighed, leaning back in the chair, "Right, the official werewolf babysitter, who wouldn't want that job?"

"You know when I was a kid I always hated that little elf," Stiles mused as he popped a curly fry in his mouth, handing one to Derek, "What elf?" the werewolf replied, leaning over and grabbing the fry with his mouth, "The one from Rudolph... I mean look I GET that he's supposed to be special and different like Rudolph but I always thought, ya' know, how STUPID do you have to be to trade MAKING TOYS for messing around in people's mouths? I always thought dentistry was such an unhygenic profession," Derek choked on his fry, thanking the powers that be that he was in front of a red light so he could duck his head and cough, "You... I... how does a person even respond to that?" "Well don't tell me there was never a beloved childhood figure that got on YOUR nerves," Stiles teased, picking up a handfull of greasy fries and shoving them in his mouth, Derek thought for a moment, racking his brain before nodding slowly, "Fred Flintstone," "WHY?" 'Because I always thought he was just SO rude, no respect, no appreciation, no manners, I always wondered why Wilma didn't up and leave him but as I got older I realized how old the cartoon was and came to the sad conclusion that divorce wasn't very popular back then, but I always thought to myself you know, if I was her and couldn't divorce him, I would have killed him in his sleep," "...Oh my GOD Derek that is SO much worse than being annoyed by an unhygenic elf!" Stiles laughed loudly, Derek snorted, "You realize dentistry isn't ACTUALLY as germ-ridden as you seem to have thought it was right?" "Yeah I get that NOW, but back then I just thought it was so gross to put your hands in people's mouths," "And I thought Fred Flintstone was a horrible human being," "Well he wouldn't win husband of the year," Stiles chuckled as they drove, "...Are we really doing this?" Derek asked suddenly, making Stiles glance over at him curiously, "Really doing what?" "This... this... laughing and talking like nothing is wrong on our way to go stop a murderer," Derek explained, Stiles shrugged, "It isn't the weirdest thing ever," "Well I know... just... not exactly normal either," "Have we EVER been normal?" "Hn... true,"

~+~

"Alright, let me go ahead of you," Stiles warned as he got out of the car, Derek gave a small nod and followed him immediately, watching Stiles go, "What's the plan once we get in here anyway?" Derek muttered, "Don't worry, I have that covered, just trust me," he grinned back, Derek did just that, not asking again as they continued, Stiles held a hand out suddenly to stop him, narrowing his eyes, "Stiles?" "Wait.... something doesn't feel right...." he muttered, taking another step forward as Derek stayed put, Stiles reached into the bag on his hip, grabbing a handfull of mountain ash and tossing it out at the snow in front of them, sure enough it landed in a straight line across the ground, "Just as I thought, magic barrier, I need to smudge it," he muttered, Derek watched as Stiles pulled a smudge stick and a lighter from his backpack, "Do you really think that'll work on a barrier?" Derek asked in confusion, "Yeah, the magic is pretty weak, if I weaken it even more with the smudging I should be able to just... break right through it," he explained, "Ah," Derek muttered, watching Stiles smudge the area, "Get ready alright? Just because I sensed magic doesn't mean there aren't other things there, there's no telling if she's planted Wolfsbane or something," Derek nodded again, coughing from the smell before Stiles finally put the flame out and put the smudge stick back in his pack, "Yeaaaah that's gonna be an assault on the senses when I open it again," he muttered, "Don't ask me to be in the room when you do," Derek sighed back, following Stiles once more towards the house, "Yeah yeah don't worry," he snorted, "Well atleast this place wasn't hard to find," Derek mused suddenly as he looked around, "Yeah only house on the street right at the edge of the woods, figures a witch would live here," he muttered, Derek shrugged, both of them walking up the steps to the front door as Stiles reached into his backpack and grabbed a dagger, taking a breath before ringing the doorbell, "USPS!" he shouted, hiding the dagger behind his back, Derek watched anxiously, not sure if this was the best plan or not, but then again there was a time to be tactfull and a time to go in guns blazing, dealing with unknown danger that had access to potentially limitless magic may not be the time to beat around the bushes, the door opened and Stiles had the dagger at someone's throat lightening fast, pressing her against the wall inside the house as Derek followed protectively, "Are you Annabeth Nickles?" he asked, the girl wimpered, nodding slightly, Stiles stared at her, taking a step back and taking a better look, "How old are you? Sixteen?" he asked cautiously, "F-Fifteen..." she breathed, he nodded slowly, "You're a witch aren't you?" "Y-Yes..." she breathed, "Are you here alone?" "Yes..." he slowly moved the dagger back, taking a breath, "Look, we didn't come here to hurt a kid... are you responsable for the murders lately?" he asked bluntly, "W-What? NO!" she cried immediately, "You sure? 'Cause we found your magic on the killers, they claim to have no memories of hurting anyone," he pointed out as Derek pulled the rings out of Stiles' bag and showed them to her, "Th-This has all been a big misunderstanding... please... let me explain," she breathed

"I really didn't kill anyone.. I just... I was just trying to help my freinds," she said quietly, Stiles glanced at her, still cautious despite having put her in a circle of mountain ash, "Ok, you'll have to do a better job of explaining than that," he commented, "My freinds, Collette and Will... they moved here from their home in Alaska about a month ago for personal reasons, they're my freinds... a few days ago they met up with some hunters, the hunters tried to kill them.. obviously... so... Will fought back, he took them out, but the trauma of what he did was too much for he and Collette to handle, even though it was them or the hunters, they still felt too much guilt, I gave them the rings as a way to escape, took any of the memories that would hurt them or confuse them away..." "Why make them unremovable?" Derek interrupted, "So that they wouldn't take them off by accident and get hit with the pain of these memories," she explained softly, hanging her head, "I disguised the hunter's bodies as part of the urban legend serial murders, I was hoping no one would notice," she said quietly, "What about the snow?" he asked with a frown, "My mom and I wanted a white Christmas... we used to live in Minnesota where it snowed all the time, we just wanted it to snow again here... so I made it snow, but it looks like I overdid it and kind of... Elsa'd the place..." "Well?" Stiles asked, glancing at Derek, "She's telling the truth," he replied, Stiles nodded, moving the mountain ash away with his foot and taking a step back, "Thank you," Annabeth breathed, standing and slowly stepping out of the circle, "Yeah, we're not looking to hurt innocent people, we're just trying to solve these murders," Stiles explained, she nodded slowly, taking a breath, "S-Still.... thank you... I was just-" "I know, you were just trying to help your freinds, believe me no one gets that better than we do," he chuckled, "But that still leaves the question, if Annabeth isn't the murderer.... then who is?" Derek asked with concern, suddenly an arrow shot forward and landed in Annabeth's chest, making her gasp and stagger backwards, "That would be me," Stiles and Derek turned around, but were too slow before they both were shot in the arm with a strange looking dart, neither able to catch a glimpse at the person who spoke before they ended up blacking out

~+~

"Ah good morning there, I was wondering how long it would take," Stiles looked up in a daze, blinking his eyes in a desperate attempt at getting a veiw of who was holding him captive, "I'm not surprised you woke up before your werewolf freind, those sleeping drugs are stronger than I thought they'd be," he mused, Stiles swallowed, trying to speak, "Who.... are you...?" he managed out, "Me? My name is Roland, I'm Annabeth's brother, how ya' doin'?" he smirked, Stiles took a breath, his chest felt heavy and his heart was palpatating, speaking was a struggle and he had to work just to get his fingers to twitch, "Ah yeah, sorry about that, those drugs can make you feel pretty nasty for a wile, no idea wen they'll start to wear off," "I don't... who....?" Stiles grunted, "Ah yes you're still confused about who exactly I am," the lights turned on suddenly, making Stiles groan in pain at the sudden shock on his eyes, "I'm Annabeth's brother, Roland," he repeated as Stiles tried to adjust his eyes to the light, once he did he noticed Roland's appearance, dark green eyes with long black hair, slicked into a ponytail, he was a little shorter than Derek but probbably around the same age, and he looked serious... but also cocky... "So tell me... Roland.... what was your reason behind taking me and Derek hostage? You had to have an endgame or you would've let us go, believing we still didn't know who the murderer was, what was the point in catching us?" Roland chuckled, grinning and shaking his head, "Endgame? Oh no no no, you see.... you should feel GLAD I decided to get rid of you two, it has nothing to do with my endgame, it's because you two were too smart, I knew if you had found Beth so easily you would've found me before long and I wanted to go ahead and get this out of my way," he explained, "Why kill your sister?" Stiles groaned, blinking a few times, he was starting to regain his energy, slowly but surely, "Oh I didn't kill her, that arrow was laced with oak oil and wormwood, she'll be just fine, it'll heal right up, it just ... neutralized her for a time, I never did get along that well with my sister," he chuckled, "Yeah well my dad and I fight about the hot water all the time, you don't see me stabbing him," Stiles grumbled, "You're funny, I like you- how about I tell you a story?" Roland offered, grabbing a chair and sitting in front of Stiles, "Oh GOD not another long-winded speaker..." he groaned, "You see ah... Stiles? Was it? I barely caught that part of your conversation.... you see Stiles, I am a .. moderately gifted witch, my baby sister, however, is highly gifted, now when we were small that didn't seem to matter so much, Mom always thought I'd grow into my own, but puberty hit and it just never happened," "Is that when the bad storytelling gene kicked in?" Stiles grumbled, not that Roland paid any attention to him, "Ever since that... tragic moment, Mom has always paid more attention to Beth than to me, and really, who could blame her? Mom IS the High Preistess of one of California's premiere covens... well, I couldn't handle suddenly having none of Mom's attention- despite being the oldest even- so I started researching other ways- BETTER ways- to develop my magic," "And you turned to ritual sacrifice, what a surprise," Stiles snorted, moving his arm up against the chair to push his sleeve up, "Not exactly, no, see the killing... that was just an after thought really, it wasn't even nessicairy... but it was the cleanest way to tie up loose ends and.. I have to admit, I'm kind of a classics freak, always did love that movie Urban Legends, now I'm creating some urban legend victums of my own, but I digress," "Do you though?" Stiles grumbled, starting to rub his bare arm against the rope, "SO I decided the problem with ritual sacrifice and other.. 'dark' magic.. is that it always came with a price, sooner or later I'd have to pay up and that just doesn't suit me, so I started thinking, what is the closest thing to magic you can get?" "Criss Angel?" Stiles guessed sarcastically, inhaling as his arm started being rubbed raw by the ropes, "ALCHEMY," Roland explained, "I could master alchemy and then find a way to gain more witch's magic than my sister, I'd be the head of the coven after Mom dies and I'd go back to being the favorite child, simple right? These poor idiots, I feel sorry for them, all because they had the notes and know-how to create a Philosopher's Stone they had to end up dead," he clicked his tounge, shaking his head, "A Philosopher's Stone? I hate to tell you this but we are NOT actually living in Fullmetal Alchemist here and I'm pretty sure a bloody stone will get you NOTHING," "You haven't done the research that I have! You don't know that!" the man insisted, "If I can just get enough power to... to maybe even SWITCH the magic you I have with what Beth has, then that'll do and I'll be back on top," he explained, "You know what I hate?" Stiles asked suddenly, sensing Derek starting to stir next to him, "I HATE it when bad guys unveil their evil plots to the good guys wile they're tied up! You'd THINK ya'll would've watched enough Kim Possible by now to know that that's NEVER a good idea, and to make matters worse, did you even BOTHER to check and see what I am first? Maybe all this time I've been a werewolf just waiting on you to get too close so I can bite off a finger!" "No offense but... have you SEEN yourself? I've seen yorkies scarier than you, you're just a little human, what good can you do?" he chuckled, Stiles inhaled sharply as he felt his skin cut open, starting to bleed, "Well you're right Roland I'm not a werewolf," he mused, Derek's head jerking up suddenly at the smell of Stiles' blood, Roland chuckled, about to speak before Stiles spoke again, "I'm a vampire," Roland froze, turning around and going pale when he saw Stiles with black eyes and elongated fangs, grinning madly at him, "Roland, you know, you've really got yourself in a BAD situation here," he chuckled, feeling Derek jerk the already loose ropes the rest of the way apart and shrugging them off, "I'm a vampire, you're a talking blood bag, I'm hungry, you're REALLY annoying, and you have done a TERRIBLE job at tieing me down, seriously man some boy scouts would've done a better job than this," he stood up, arm bleeding onto the ground as he walked forward, Roland starting to back up in fear, "N-No... you can't be...." "Can't I? Have you ever researched how to hold a vampire prisoner? Or what they look like? Hell even how to TEST them?" h chuckled, "Judging by the look on your face I'm gonna take that as a firm NO," Roland grabbed another dart gun from behind him and shot Stiles immediately, "You think I haven't thought of everything!? HA! Enjoy your vervain dart!" he shouted, grabbing a set of matches from the table and striking one before tossing it onto the ground in front of Stiles, "I'll just be getting on with my life now, you were right though, I should have killed you on the spot, thanks, I'll take that into future consideration," Stiles chuckled, easily removing the dart and grinning at him, features now back to normal, "Surprise Roland, just kidding," "What...?" the witch hissed, "I've been working on that trick ALL SUMMER! I'm SO glad it finally works right," he started walking closer, towards the growing flames, "I needed some extra time so I tricked you, sorry 'bout that," he mused, "What... are you...?" he breathed, Stiles shrugged, turning his arm over and letting his blood drip onto the fire, "To be honest we still don't really know? I'm not a druid, not a witch, not an ordinairy human either..." the flames crept up closer and closer, backing Roland against a wall, "I guess for now we're still just calling me... a Spark," and in that moment the flames encased him

~+~

"You sure you're ok Derek?" Stiles asked worriedly as he glanced up at the werewolf again, "I'm fine Stiles, honest," he said with a small frown, leaning back on the couch as they stared at the witch currently bound and gagged in the circle of mountain ash, "How long will it take for Parrish to get here?" Stiles asked with a frown, "Shouldn't be much longer, he said he would be here soon," Derek muttered back, Stiles hated having to call for reinforcements but since the guy had committed human crimes there was a certain process that had to be dealt with legally and he needed the squad car to bring him in, "How's your arm?" Derek asked quietly, Stiles shrugged, "I could complain but I won't," he replied, glancing at Roland- who was concious now and staring daggers at him- and raising a brow curiously as the witch started to scream and growl against the gag, "I think our freind wants something," he hummed, leaning over and pulling the gag down, "I don't get it, what kind of powers were you using!? How did you raise those flames!?" he hissed, "Well I'm DELIGHTED you asked," Stiles grinned, pulling his sleeve up again and showing Roland the irritated rope burn on his arm, "See this tattoo?" he asked, pointing to the blade tattooed on his arm, "Yeah? So?" he grunted back, "So? SO?! You're a witch and you're telling me you don't know what this means!?" he huffed, "Yeah," Roland snorted back, Stiles rolled his eyes, "It's an athame, you MASSIVE idiot," he replied with a roll of his eyes, "Derek remembers what an athame is don't ya' Derek?" Derek nodded slowly, glancing up from the window he was staring at, "An athame is a ritualistic dagger used in witchcraft and wicca, it represents fire- one of the four elements- and is one of the four major Arcana in tarot, along with the chalice- water-, the wand- air-, and the pentacle- earth-," he explained, "SEE? Even a WEREWOLF knows that," Derek's eye twitched but he decided to stay quiet, he may not be ill from the Wolfsbane but he still didn't feel great, "So what does it DO?" Roland huffed, "When you bled from the athame tattoo your magic was channeled in a way mimicking how it would have been channeled in an actual athame, so when your blood hit the fire it had minimal control of the flames, right?" Derek asked, glancing up at Stiles, "Well that's not ALL it can do, it can actually do alot more than that... but yeah, you've got the jist,"

~+~

"Thank GOD that's over," Stiles groaned as he leaned back against the couch in the loft, "No kidding," Derek muttered back as he opened the first aid kit, "I'm glad it's done and over with but I feel bad for Annabeth and her mom, can you imagine? You come home from work to find that your one kid has been shot with an arrow and the other is a murderer so he's being carted off to jail.... jeez...." he grumbled, "Atleast the snow is sticking around a little longer, it may not be an 'eternal winter' or whatever but Beth seemed to be pretty confident it'd last through Christmas," Derek mused spraying Stiles' wound with anti-biotic spray, "OUCH!!" Stiles screamed, jerking upwards and glaring at Derek, who just glared back harder until Stiles leaned back again, "Yeah that's true," he muttered, "I'll have my first white Christmas- yay," "Laura and I used to have a white Christmas every year when we lived in New York... it was nice, I like snow," Derek mused quietly, "Oh yeah?" Stiles smiled slightly, Derek just nodded slowly, rubbing some soothing cream over the burn before starting to wrap some bandages around it, "I think this should heal in about a week, but if it starts bothering you let me no and we'll have Mrs. McCall look at it," he offered, tieing off the bandages, "Ah yes, thank you Dr. Hale, you're a life saver," Stiles grinned, watching Derek put the supplies away, "I bet that'd be a fun TV show, a werewolf doctor goin' around, giving kids lollipops and kissing booboos and making adults see the stupid mistakes that lead to their inevitable injueries, fighting crime on the side... why isn't that a show?" he mused, "Maybe because it sounds stupid and no one would watch it," Derek snorted, "Excuse you people would SO watch it!" Stiles huffed, hopping to his feet and following Derek to the kitchen, "In what world would people watch it?" "In THIS one, DUDE, do you even know what's on TV these days? You watch The Vampire Diaries for crying out loud! We stalk American Horror Story like it's a crime and we threaten bodily harm upon people if we miss one minute of Once Upon A Time, you know what's out there," "So what you're saying is that you've turned me into a TV Junkie and you need to be stopped," Derek smirked, leaning against the counter, "What I'm saying is that we have several snow days coming up and you're binge-watching Orphan Black with me or else," Stiles smirked, slipping his arms around Derek's neck, "What is your POINT? Those are all dramas, sure, people LOVE dramas, what kind of drama would Dr. Wolfman bring to the table?" he smirked, "...Have you completely forgotten Supernatural's 200th episode? People CRAVE funny supernatural hygenicks, and besides it's better than that idea Scott had a few months ago about a show about teenage werewolves, I mean, ok, look, I get that teenagers like to see their own kind on TV in these situations, but do you know why The Vampire Diaries is still sucessfull? Because they milked that cow and wen it started running dry they bumped everybody up to college, they kept the highschool setting for the cutesy things like prom and cheerleading but when it wasn't usefull they just let everybody run amuck with no threat of social services questioning any of them and I think that's beautifull, that's how you do a teenage supernatural show," "That's how you give people the wrong impression of what being a teenager in the supernatural community is ACTUALLY like and how people like Jackson are created," Derek teased, looping his arms around Stiles' back, Stiles cringed, hissing, "Mmm...we do not need more of those...." "Nope," Derek chuckled, kissing Stiles softly, "Dr. Hale are you coming onto me?" he teased, "Only for the past three months," Derek grunted back with a smirk, kissing him again, "Three months.... wow.... and the pack is still somehow oblivious," "They're catching on though, when are we going to tell them?" "If we wait until Friday Lydia wins her part of the pool and she'll get extra spending money for Christmas... I don't know about you but I like her gifts WAY more when the price tag has an extra zero on the end," "You are TERRIBLE," Derek grinned, "Well who would you rather win the pot Derek? If we come out to them NOW it's gonna be Malia- and let me remind you of the Frozen-pocolypse that occured when she won $50 on that scratch off lotto ticket two months ago- and if we wait until next week it'll be Issac and do we really want to give him anything wen he isn't even kind enough to come by and say HI to us yet?" ".....I guess if someone has to win Lydia isn't a bad option," Stiles grinned and nodded, "Now we're talkin' big guy," he grinned, stretching his arms up again as his shirt rode up, Derek glanced down, raising an eyebrow at a distinctive ink mark on Stiles' hip, "Is that ANOTHER tattoo?" Stiles grinned happily, pulling his clothes out of the way to show off the ink on his hip, "It's Ouroboros! I got it two weeks ago! Don't you remember going with me to the parlor?" "You got the triskele on your back two weeks ago," Derek pouted, Stiles blinked, "Oh yeah... OHHH... yeah.... you went to get us a couple of cookies down the street at the bakery when I was getting this one...." "How many tattoos do you even HAVE now?" Derek huffed, "Um.... well the four major arcana.... Ouroboros... the triskele.. the tripple goddess... seven? Maybe eight?" "Stiles," he groaned, tossing his head back, "I may not have anything against tattoos but I'd like to have SOME part of my original boyfreind still around by the time you're 25," "Oh RELAX, they're all small! ...Except the triskele, that's about medium... they hardly take up any space! I need them for my magicness Der, you saw how that came in handy today," Derek grunted, nose twitching, "I still have PLENTY of room for biting territory, don't worry," he smirked, eyebrows wiggling as he moved closer, "I don't have any on my neck, for example," Derek slowly glanced up, raising an eyebrow and taking a step closer to him, "Is that so....?"

~+~

"Why does it wreak in here?" was the first thing Malia said upon her return to the loft that evening, "Did you scent Stiles AGAIN? Derek he's starting to smell more like you than you do," Scott pouted, clearly if Scott wanted Stiles to smell like any werewolf it was him and he wasn't doing well with the fact that he was no longer available enough to provide his constant brotherly fragerence to the spark on a regular basis, "We ... had an incident today... and Stiles was sprayed with a can of axe- naturally I had to deodorize him," Derek smirked from behind his coffee mug, Erica leaned over, sniffing Stiles, "You did a good job atleast," she mused, Stiles squinted at her, mouth partly ajar, "....And thank you Erica for your assessment," Erica just shrugged and went about her way to the kitchen, "Hey did you hear they caught that serial killer today?" Allison asked suddenly as she went to sit in one of the chairs by the TV, "Yeah, Parrish was on that case," Lydia smiled as she went to join Allison, "How much did you know about it Stiles?" Kira asked curiously as she poked her head around the corner from the kitchen, he shrugged, "Enough, I helped a little, it wasn't anything special," he grinned, scooting a little closer into Derek's side as he grabbed a cookie from the plate on the coffee table, "Shame you didn't get to work on it more, that could have had some cool stories," Scott mused, "REAL shame," Stiles muttered back, grabbing his phone from his pocket when it started to ring, "Huh? Derek? You texted me?" Stiles asked in confusion, opening the text and blinking in surprise when Tigger suddenly popped upon his phone and bounced and jumped and moved around, singing along "The Wonderfull Thing About Tiggers", Stiles slowly glanced up at Derek, who was flushed red and trying his hardest not to look at him, "Deeeeereeeek.... did you find somebody to make an Tigger shmeji for my phone?" he asked with a teasing sing-song voice, "It's part of your Christmas gift, shut up," "Ohhhh Derek you really do care! How ADORABLE!!!" "Shut. Up. Stiles." "Nope, from now on I'm going to sing to the world about my precious El-" "If you say one word I will throw that phone out a window," he said sternly, "..... Message recieved...."

~+~

Considering the obscenely long day the two had had it was really no surprise that they both passed out on the couch cuddled up together in the middle of The Hobbit, cuddled as closely to eachother as possible as if they were trying to ward off the cold from outside, it didn't really matter that they missed 75% of the movie, they had seen it before after all no less than three times, what they DID miss, however, was the fact that most of the pack congrigated around the couch and watched them like a couple of wild animals for the better part of a half hour, waiting to see if one of them would do something, "I am TELLING you they're already together," Kira giggled, "I've known that for over a month, you can't smell that much like someone else without being all over them all the time, and ... well.... look at them," Malia mused, "Guys we really shouldn't be invading their privacy... just leave them alone and let them sleep," Scott said reasonably, "Maybe we should move them to Derek's bed so they're more comfortable," Allison observed as she draped a blanket over them, "Touch Derek wen he's sleeping? Yeah, you do that princess, the last time I tried I nearly pulled back a stub instead of a hand," Erica snorted, "To be fair that was over a year ago," Boyd pointed out, "No she has a point, Stiles punched me in his sleep once, I wouldn't bother them," Scott added, "Look it's obvious that they're a couple, I say let's call it now and just give me the money," Malia proposed, "No way! They aren't officially a couple until they verbally say so, those are the RULES," "Wait a minute.... do they know that we know?" Allison asked suddenly, there was a pause before slowly, one by one, people started to shake their heads, there was a breif pause before Malia smirked, leaning back on her heels, "I'm gonna tell 'em," Kira pouted, looking almost offended and nudging Malia's arm, "Don't you DARE,"

~+~

Stiles woke up suddenly and blinked as he stared at the ceiling, glancing at the clock and groaning, almost midnight.... well not only did they fall asleep during the movie but the pack obviously moved them to Derek's bedroom at some point too... "Hey Der?" he said quietly, poking Derek in the side, the werewolf just grunted unhappily, "I think they know," "Who?" "Everyone," "'Bout what?" "Us," there was a pause, "Stiles?" "Yeah?" "Go to sleep," Derek demanded, pulling the Spark closer and nuzzling against his back, "..... I can live with that,"


End file.
